By Simon Deng
The United Nations International Labor Organization (ILO) has advised the transitional unity government to work to improve conditions for workers in the country.
Dereje Alemu, the ILO Program Officer in Addis Ababa said these remarks during the tripartite consultative symposium conducted in Palm Africa Hotel in Juba on Monday.
“We are here to review a document called decent work country program for South Sudan, the key priorities that we anticipate to be reflected in this document are key issues affecting the world of work in South Sudan,” Alemu said.
He disclosed that they are aiming to establish good relation with the ministry of labor, the workers organization, and trade federation and employers association in the country.
“With the support of government, dialogue will be organized along the key issues affecting work in South Sudan, the rights of workers, issues around social protection of workers, and working conditions in terms of professional safety and health,” Alemu said.
Alemu added that document under review will capture national government priorities as well as the priorities of workers and employers organization.
He noted that issues in the place of work need to be resolved amicably.
“Workers are looking at working conditions in terms of rights and salaries, and employers also have issues with regard to advancing opportunities for business companies to invest and create more wealth in South Sudan,” he revealed.
“If there are issues in work place, how do we solve them without causing problem, by-laws and social dialogue platform are very important in bringing together workers and employers to address issues,” he said.
James Hoth Mai, the Minister for Labor, said that the document under review is in line with what was recently discussed during the international labor organization conference held Geneva.
“We have established labor council, we have discussed so many issues about labor migration, we need to enroll labor governance to the state level because most of our workers and businesses are in the states and most of the problems are also in the states,” Mai said.
